A Nostalgia for Modernism

The title is taken from a book written about the mood of post 90s secular citizens of the Turkish Republic. The fascist coup of 80 had created the Islamoturkist ideology but it also wanted to balance it with its internal bizarre constituents, so the leaders made sure to alert the followers of the existing Turkist ideology to be "on guard" against the new newcomers, just in case they behaved too Islamist for their own good.. This act ushered in a resurgence of all things related to Kemal, a remembarence of the man through symbols, displays of devotion, protests. The author Ozyurek chose one photograph from such a protest where hard-core adherents put on masks with the founders face creating an eerie display, likely causing an effect opposite than was intented.

These riled-up followers, gazing through the dead-looking eyes of the founder's picture, were clearly trying too hard.. This was culture war, as in US it around useless issues to hide away the abnormalities of the uniparty, this one was pitting one group against another, while hiding away its own abnormalities. The nostalgia aimed for an 1920s spirit, when the only ideology was Kemal's, centered around a nomadic pure Turk who was the bringer of civilization at the same time forgotten (until Kemal reminded everyone). The ideology, and the nostalgia for it later had many uses, one of which was to cement relations with the Anglo alliance, another historical amnesia, yet another to explain away lost territories with conjured up animosities. The remembarences, and nostalgia ritual was more comical than anything else the flow of history having gone past tragedy, and comedy at this point. That is how I remembered them and wondered when these followers would wake up and find out what was done to them, and to others in their name.